Notes / Commercial Description:
Deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and Madagascar grows the perfect ingredient for an extraordinary Porter brewed in Colorado. Breckenridge Brewery’s Vanilla Porter. An ale that has all the chocolate and roasted nut flavor of a classic Porter, with an enigmatic surprise thrown in for good measure.

Easiest most simple review ever. Pours like a Cream Soda and tastes like a Cream Soda. Pretty damn enjoyable too, drinks smooth and crisp. Moderate ABV makes this porter borderline sessionable if you can find the right time and place to rip into a couple. I'm thinking fireplace, ski lodge, after shoveling... winter specific.

Pours a medium to dark brown with a half inch tan head that was poorly retained and left a couple rings of lacing. Smell is vanilla, coffee and chocolate. Taste follows the smell with vanilla first and foremost followed by coffee, semi-sweet chocolate, nuts and malt. Lightly carbonated, mouthfeel is thin, a bit watery for my taste. I like the vanilla flavor, but this beer is just good, not great.

Dark brown color with deep ruby highlights. Thick long-lasting tan head eventually fades to a thin ring, leaving some sticky lacing. Lots of vanilla bean on the nose, along with notes of coffee and dark cocoa. The flavor profile leans heavily toward these as well, with a little bit of prune and a slight tartness on the finish. Mouthfeel is a tad thin, with quite a bit of carbonation. There are some unpleasant sour and burnt-coffee notes on the aftertaste. All in all, though, a very good beer.

This brew reminded me why I like dark beers and why porters are the ones I always keep an eye out. Every now and then, I come across one, like this one, which blows me away...

From the glass it pours a very dark brown, almost black liquid, but with surprising red highlights - distinctly there, no doubt. The smell had everything you would expect in a dark beer - the roasted malts, caramel notes, and of course with this one the vanilla - truly special. The beer was lightly carbonated (a plus up in my book) with a creamy texture I am certain I noted. There were not only the hints of the caramel, roasted malts, and vanilla, but an overall strong beer flavor which mixed well with all the other ingredients - I was impressed. Overall, it a great beer, probably one of the best if not best porters I have had to date.

L: cola, light.
S sweetness. Some vanilla
F: light body, fairly highly carbonation.
Taste sweet and malty, some villain upfront but you need to hunt for it.
O: just ok. Vanilla is not as upfront as I'd like, making youlook for it.

Nice cola color with no head. Nose is very sweet and vanilla. Taste is heavy vanilla with hints of toffee and root beer. Strong finish. I don't know if this was an old bottle but this beer was way too much vanilla. Tasted like a melted flat root beer float and not much else. Not a fan.

Poured into pint glass. Black pour minimal head that didn't last 2 minutes. Thin ring remains after 5 minutes. Smells..like root beer. No vanilla on nose, a bit of coco. Taste..a bit of vanilla cookie like as it warms. Root beer-esque. Pleasant, not too chocolate sweet, a bit of fudge graham. Feel..thin bodied, not high carbonation sting, I personally enjoy more creamy mouthfeel. Overall..decent offering, however wouldn't be my choice to buy again, if offered it at a friends house, wouldn't turn it down.

It is a dark brown porter with a very thin tan head. It is less opaque then most porters and appears to be a little thinner. The smell is malty and faintly of roast coffee. There is a definite nice vanilla flavor, coffee, chocolate, and roasted malts. The body is lighter than the average porter. The flavor here is actually pretty good though nothing too special. Where I think this porter is lacking though is in the body. It’s too light and watery. Beer Advocate calls it “drinkable”, but I personally like my porters to be a little more robust. I’ve had worse, but I’ve definitely had much better also.

I liked this porter a lot. It is a little on the sweeter and lighter side as porters go but that is my favorite kind. It had a nice caramel/toffee color with a 1/4" head. The smell was sweet with lots of vanilla and toffee notes. The taste was delicious and got better as it warmed. It leaves lots of caramel, vanilla and toffee on your tongue with a pleasant aftertaste.

Look - Black with a small tan head, some carbonization but less than the average for type.
Smell- Too sweet or malty hint of chocolate or roasted nibs are more pronounced in odor than vanilla
Taste- Pleasant enough the vanilla is out front. Roasted malt flavor with hints of chocolate and some coffee.
Feel- Can't put a finger on it, too mouth drying, kind of coats the tongue in a not pleasant.
Overall- I will buy this smooth porter again and have done so for years. For the price I paid $6.69 for a six pack maid this a good beer for the price and I like porters only on occasion.

Breckenridge Vanilla Porter. Not much nose, has a slight bitter/metallic taste and not finding a lot of vanilla. Just OK. Perhaps I am biased towards the stronger taste of stouts, so to be fair porters seem pretty bland to me in general.

Vanilla Porter pours an almost black color with a small lacing head. Weak aromas with hints of smokey malts. Taste has huge natural vanilla flavors. Good body and feel. Overall a great beer if you love vanilla.

Tons of traditional Porter chocolatey and roasty flavors, with wonderful hints of vanilla throughout the experience to include taste and smell. Aroma is a little on the faint side, but pleasurable nonetheless. Mouthfeel is also that of a typical porter, bitterness lingers from the roasted malts. I'm not a huge Porter guy, but this one has definitely gotten my attention.

APPEARANCE: Dark brown, ruby up to the light. A finger of tan head, goes away quickly. Not much for lacing, looks watery in the glass.
AROMA: Vanilla is there. Sweet. Some roasted malt.
TASTE: Very sweet. Kind of an overkill with the vanilla or fake, like extract. Some dark dried fruit, and slight roasted malt quality.
FEEL: Thin body, average carbonation, drying on the finish.
OVERALL: Very artificial tasting and thin.

I like vanilla, and I like porter, but this is weird. Color is decent enough, a dark cola with a light tan head. Nothing exceptional. Nose, typical porter malts... and yep, there's a sweet vanilla cloud there. Taste: maybe for a split second I thought this would be decent, then the vanilla kicked in, and it's too strong, too much like candy all through the middle of the flavor profile. And then if that's not enough, it sort of gets watery at the end. Mouthfeel is nothing strange, but leaves an aftertaste that's a little too much like artificially flavored candy. Glad I only bought one. Best by date was 6/19/16 ("06B19B16"), so freshness was not the problem.

Brown pour, thin, 1/6" tan head. Aroma is a little bit of this and that, roast, small amount of vanilla behind that.

Vanilla more prominent in the taste but it never treads beyond complimentary to the roast and body. Same with the notion of a woody aspect to the malt roasting. Some chocolate malt. Not a flavor or vanilla bomb, stays relatively dry, not sweet.

I liked it. Good format. One of this brewery's more enjoyable beers for me.

DEFINITELY VANILLA IF THAT'S WHAT YOUR LOOKING FOR. HOWEVER, I AM A HOMEBREWER AND HAVE USED BOTH VANILLA EXTRACT & VANILLA BEAN. THE EXTRACT TASTE IS PREVALENT. THAT'S NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING SINCE THIS STYLE BEER IS ONE THAT MOST PEOPLE ONLY WANT A COUPLE AS OPPOSED TO DRINKING EVERY DAY.

Bought at complete random to round out my mix a six. A guy at the store told me it wasn't very good but I tend to take everything I hear with a grain of salt. Always need something dark to keep fron getting IPA palate fatigue since I bought quite a few of 'em tonight. Anyway, haven't had much outta these guys since I rarely see their brews and when I do they are way out of date. This one is fresh so I figured why not.

Look - From the twelve ounce bottle hard poured into a dimpled pint glass. This brew pours what appears to be black but isn't quite there once held up to the light seeing as there are some very apparent ruby high lights that can easily be noted. The head however fills out very nicely and just barely touches over the brim of the glass though without a drop of spillage. Khaki coloration sits amongst the top on feathery smoothness whilst dying down to a mere finger with residual lacing being left. Carbonation is unreadable

Smell - Much sweet than I had anticipated. Honestly doesn't smell much like a porter at all, more akin to an über sweet doppelbock or perhaps some kind of Belgian Dubbel. Fruity with quite a bit of cherry and only a faint dosage of vanilla of you really want to look for it.

Taste - The flavor profile is also highly reminiscent of a different style. Once again it is very sweet with lots of cherry and even perhaps a fruitcake like presence. Is this English style by any chance? Because then it would be a bit more to style. Vanilla is once again very tame and sometimes not even a factor. Traces of Graham cracker on the finish.

Feel - Rather watery in terms of body with a faint pillowy froth in the mouth. Carbonation is definitely higher than I had expected. Flavors remain much the same with the sweetness being the main factors here. Still miniscule levels of vanilla and the graham cracker essence turns up a bit. Swallows easy.

Overall - I'm not sure if this was a bad batch or what but this wasn't much a porter as it was a doppelbock or something. Or didn't deliver on virtually anything it promised. About half way through o stopped rating it according the style and started going on overall enjoyment. It is a fine beer for sessionability and maybe even new guy beer pong, but overall if you go into it expecting a porter you will be immensely let down.

Poured from a bottle into a glass. This Porter had almost no head - looks almost like a cola in the glass. There is almost no aroma, just a faint hint of acetyl acetone, maybe a slight fruitiness. The vanilla flavor is also faint and the sweetness is balanced by a dark chocolate bitterness. Has a medium to thin mouthfeel with heavy - but not unpleasant carbonation. Overall, it is easy to drink but not outstanding.

On tap, poured dark brown without much head. Smell and taste is mostly the vanilla with some sweetness - I'm not getting much of the roast malt/chocolate etc. Lighter feel and with more carbonation bite than I typically expect from a porter. Almost reminiscent of root beer. Overall, good but not quite what I was hoping for. On the other hand, it has a lot of character given its drinkability/sessionability.